Sometimes you want the whole world to hear.
Songs that benefit from being played loud.
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Musings on the byways of popular culture
Musings on the byways of popular culture
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Highway To Hell HAS to be played as loud as possible!
I do also enjoy a bit of Radiohead at a high volume. Particularly In Rainbows or OK Computer
“My boomerang won’t come back” – Charlie Drake.
Desert Cruiser by Truckfighters of course. Here’s a ridiculously exciting version from Live In London:
Highly recommend the Truckfighters film (if you can get hold of it):
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2007506/
I would plump for the Pretenders debut LP. All of it. When I want to leap around my house like a slightly arthritic teenager it fits the bill perfectly. It even says as much on the back IIRC. Was this one of the first records to have the “Play Loud” instruction on the cover?
You can’t really play ‘Won’t Get Fooled Again’ at a normal volume can you.
Beat me to it….! Quadrophenia also benefits from a clockwise turn of the volume knob.
Agreed. Especially Love Reign O’er Me
If I was a truck driver person, this is what I’d be playing at full volume.
Or I could revert to my long-ago teenage persona and play this..
many punk and metal tracks seem to fit the bill, but are so badly produced/recorded that they sound terrible in a home setting……of course this maybe my stereo objecting to too many watts.
having said that…
eddie and the hotrods..do anything you wanna do.
the jam…strange town.
the clash…48 hours.
pink Floyd…comfortably numb. the second solo is just made for that prickly “was that my speakers dying” moment.
the only album I have with a volume demand is thunders first “back street symphony”.
the sleeve notes proudly proclaim it must be played “very very LOUD”.
FISH.
Can I just say that I really like that first Thunder album. Not so keen on anything else they’ve done, but that first album is ruddy marvelous (if a bit lyrically cringey in places)
On Iron Maiden’s ‘Maiden Japan’ sleeve it says ‘Pray Roud!’
Which is just razy lascism
Obvious candidate.
Motorhead – No Sleep ‘Til Hammersmith must ALWAYS be played at full volume.
There is no logical way this can be referred to as “background music”
One of my favourite Beatles songs, Everybody’s Got Something To Hide Except For Me And My Monkey. Sounds fantastic loud.
I cannot imagine Kashmir played at anything less than thunderous volume.
Came here to write this and now I’m going to have to go away and have another think.
In The Light off the same record has got that same head banging majesty and groove. I think I prefer it for the dynamics to Kashmir.
The 1985 compilation ‘The Who Collection’ definitely benefits from being played loud.
32 tracks across 4 sides of vinyl had a bad effect on the recording level and you have trouble hearing it properly at “normal” volume
Meat Loaf – Bat Out Of Hell
The title track is a definite full blast candidate
All Revved Up with No Place to Go and Paradise by the Dashboard Light demand similar treatment
The album is 40 years old this year – time for a re-appraisal and sharing of the “love”?
Great album with many good tracks.
Given the follow-ups two out of three ain’t bad.
Well I have just been knocked down by a feather thanks to @rigiddigit and @Unclewheaty.
Rockular music is a broad church and no mistake, but the appeal of Bat Out of Hell parts 1-12 (“it was always intended to be a dodecahedronology…”) – has totally passed me by. Until those comments I thought the ‘Loaf was roaming around Beany country with Don Estelle and Val Doonican.
Rez by Underworld
The Rat by The Walkmen
Both should rattle the windows.
YES!
Especially the live ‘Everything Everything’ version of Cowgirl/Rez – that is sublime when the volume is at max.
The Rat live on Letterman (available on YouTube, just not with my work filters) sounds pretty damn good loud.
Red by King Crimson
UFO Strangers in the Night.
Anything by Rage Against The Machine.
Their debut album, preferably.
I normally answer bagpipes to this question, but seeing as the first song I heard in the car on the radio tonight was this, it has leapt to the top of my list:
There is an explicit instruction on the cover that the Ziggy Stardust album is ‘TO BE PLAYED AT MAXIMUM VOLUME’.Who am I to argue with our new odd-eyed overlord?
Beethovens 9th natch.
Somebody (sorry can’t remember who) posted this wonderful Lady Lamb track recently – and I have been playing it often at deafening volumes ever since. It really is rather great.
Speed King by Deep Purple, just to hear Blackmore’s Marshall stack crackle as the intro ebbs away
See also the title track from Black Sabbath
Good call on Quadrophenia too – I’m One, when the band comes in…wonderful
More Quadrophenia “best played loud” – the return of the band after the quiet bit in “The Punk And The Godfather” … also wonderful
Rusty Cage by Soundgarden needs the volume cranked all the way up. It never sounds right without my Dad pummelling at the door and shouting at me to turn the bloody thing down.
Someone above mentioned Kashmir
I’d say just about any Zep, but The Immigrant Song is (still, after all these years) totally thrilling.
The thing is, it’s just guitar and drums for the first 4 bars, then Percy’s high wail (fully out there in reverb land) for the next four bars, and then, at about 17secs, the bass comes in, on a chord change, and the vocal is much more present, and it just KICKS ARSE!!
Still as exciting as when I first heard it as poxy 17 year old on the family’s portable record player which I had commandeered and relocated to my bedroom.
Dub music.
Best played loud.
Or at least loud-ish.
The three most exciting, must-play-loud, Saturday night, adrenalin rush songs in the history of everything are (as any fool knows) in no particular order:
Ace Of Spades
Anarchy In The UK
Smells Like Teen Spirit
The Dukes Of Stratosphear – 25 O’Clock
I can’t argue with any of the above, and aside from my usual go-to’s like Accadacca, you may have to trust me on this one… Hootie and the Blowfish, ‘Old Man And Me’…I had this cranked up to dangerously neighbour-angering levels on my old floor standing speakers and it was phenomenal, rocking, airy, space…loved it.
And of course, The Cult ‘She Sells Sanctuary’
I have a playlist for the gym which is predominantly made up of *Adopts Dylans Free Trade Hall rage* ‘Play It F****n Loud tunes.
The ones that sounds best are;
This Is Love – PJ Harvey
A Modern Way Of Letting Go – Idlewild
Know Your Enemy – Rage Against The Machine
Jesus Christ Pose – Soundgarden
Go – Pearl Jam
Heart In A Cage – The Stropkes
Mammoth – Interpol
Killed By Death – Motorhead
Epic – Faith No More
Sabotage – Beastie Boys
And the winner
I Wanna Be Your Dog – The Stooges
Another one! Needs coruscating volume!
The Cure’s ‘Disintegration’ has the legend on the inner sleeve that reads ‘This record has been mixed to be played loud!’
I’m sure there’s a similar motif somewhere on The The’s Mind Bomb, but I haven’t got that to hand…
Search And Destroy – Iggy & The Stooges (original Bowie mix on LP)
The first guitar comes in at earth shattering volume, then the second guitar arrives at three times the volume. Ossome!
I love Safe From Harm at ear-splitting volume, especially in the car. However my favourite Massive Attack song is Angel, cranked right up from 1.50 onwards to deafen any eavesdroppers – as shown here in the movie “Go”
‘Sunburst Finish’ by Be-Bop Deluxe. All of it from end-to-end. Crank it up and open all the windows!
I’m just so in awe of this. Loud.